Here’s how it works: If you’re flying Southwest Airlines out of PDX from June 9 thru June 26th, the bicycle baggage fee will be waived.

LaBonty wants to make sure folks realize this is only for travel out of Portland and it’s not a systemwide promotion. “This is not a sales gimmick,” he says, “our marketing department has nothing to do with it and we don’t expect to sell any additional tickets because of this.”

To LaBonty, it’s just the right thing to do. “It’s just friendly nod to the Portland biking community – which several of our employees belong to.”

He plans to hang copies of the flyer at the ticket counter and baggage area to make folks aware of the promotion.

It’s not much, but at least it’s a start. “Hopefully, next year we can get a better agreement,” says LaBonty. Yep, and hopefully this small gesture inspires other airlines to follow suit.

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17 Comments

Frank L-May 13, 2011 at 9:08 am

That’s great news, meaning I won’t have to take a train for my travels in June!

Now if we could only get Amtrak to accept more than six bikes per train! The bike fee on Amtrak is nominal and I’m happy to pay it (it’s like, five bucks – a STEAL!), but the fact almost every time I try to book an Amtrak trip, the bike slots have already been nabbed, is really frustrating.

I’d love to see Amtrak allow more than 6 bikes on the Cascades. There’s generally extra room in the baggage car. They’re pretty adverse to any more than the 6 bikes on hooks, whether boxed or unboxed.

But I was also thinking about the other long distance Amtrak trains that serve Portland like the Empire Builder and the Coast Starlight–trains that require bikes to be boxed. It would be nice to see them waive fees for that, or even allow for unboxed bikes!

I’m excited about this. Hopefully it’ll become an annual thing with a little more publicity.

Adding to this airport thread, has anyone used the tire pump at the airport? I had to use it and it was first of all really hard to find (at the Travel Oregon desk). Secondly, It’s a really small hand pump which is hard to inflate tires to pressure with. The person at the desk said there was no space for anything bigger/better.